Til Death Us Do Part

Male and female fairy wren (life size), nuno felted with alpaca and silk fibres, beady eyes and bloody canvas.

embroidered bird brooches gen 1

Generation I, looking mighty flat and a tad blah. Making gen II now with a bit of stuffing. I Probably will turn the originals from brooches into hanging decorations or something twee.

Embroidered brooches

I just started to make some embroidered bird brooches.
A quick ink pen sketch on Calico with 2X coloured thread embroidery. Some bad lowlight photobooth images. I will take some photos in the daylight tomorrow.
1X House Sparrow
1X White throated sparrow
1X House Finch
1X Carolina wren

The next batch i make will have some stuffing....these guys are just too flat and stiff looking.
Materials: Calico, thread, ink pen, card, felt/fabric.

Malarus Cyaneus

This idea came about from an exhibition proposal with Katie Jacobs and Rohani Osman entitle New Holland (Veni Vidi Vici)

It is a mounted head of a superb fairy wren on a slice of pine.
The body is bits of hand made felt sewn together with a vivid blue thread. It has been nuno felted on to black silk using alpaca fleece, suri locks and gold silk fibres.
The mount is a piece of pine i found around the farm. It has been sanded, has a few coats of shellac and topped with gloss.

I ended up giving this to a friend for their birthday.

Favourites in November

Vinyl brooch by Liam PrescottFreaking awesome repurposing of a vinyl record!


King Parrot wrapping paperKickass wrapping paper. Lovely and glossy.

Ceramic nipple brooch by Katie Jacobs Love the colour, the glaze, the double take people give you

all in the family

My mum opened an ETSY store. She is selling hand felted bags, pouches, clutches as well as nuno scarves and wraps all made using Australian alpaca fleece.
www.eellee.etsy.com

Pre christmas SALE

My ETSY store is having a sale on all stock including new stuff. Get in early and grab your self a christmas bargain!!
www.thevibrantcity.etsy.com


New 'from the woods' toys
Zigana, brain flap in dark brown tween and tan herringbone


Vivienne, cleaved butt in tan alpaca felt and plaid.

Varick


Guillermo, flayed stumps in velveteen and rose grey alpaca felt.

November Craft Hatch Market

Taking part in craft vic's Craft Hatch markets...markets for newbie crafsters and non professionals...
Should be a pretty good day. Bringing with me as much stock as i can, Kidney brooches, finger gesture brooches and 'From the Woods' Toys.
Come down the City Library on Flinders lane and have a look, runs from 11-4pm on November 8th.

New Holland (veni vidi vici)

A couple of other craftster girls and myself are working on the preparations for our proposed exhibition.

Outline snippet:
Australian aboriginals lived off the land for thousands of years, using native flora and fauna for food, building materials, medicine and clothing. By using these plants and animals to represent a traditional European custom, that is Christmas dinner, we seek to stimulate discussion on the place of nature and culture in a European colonised country, while also questioning ideas of patriotism and environmentalism.

Super excited to make things. I am thinking of hand dying fleece tops using natural dyes from Australian plants. I'm intrigued by making my own dyes from native fauna on our farm.

Kidney+Lint

Monster bag of lint! well not lint but discarded fleece that catches in the machine when being dried after washing.
I'm using this cast off alpaca fleece as stuffing. It smells surprisingly sweet like honey. weird.
Kidneys stuffed with the fleece

Offal nice kidney brooches 2008 to control temperament and disposition
heat transfer, cotton fabric, gold velveteen, black, mint + neon green thread.

gestures

Finger gestures, handsewn felt brooches
Making these for the Melbourne Design Market 08
Fingers crossed
skeletal crossed
Poke
boney bird

felt making developments

After making a few sheets of felt from scratch, I have decided that from now on i will use pre-carded alpaca fleece in the process rather than doing the washing and carding myself.
The lovely Freshfield Alpacas farm gate shop has an amazing selection of alpaca tops in variety of colours ready to be felted.
I have not given up entirely on making felt from scratch. Being able to know which alpaca the fleece has come from is a wonderful thing, but the process in converting the raw fleece into the base fabric is a lengthy one, especially when using flick carders!! So I will retain my handmade felt from OUR alpacas for very special limited edition 'From the woods'....and switch to using my handmade felt from pre-carded alpaca fleece from here on in.
Prioska is the last to use fleece from our alpacas (Seamus to be precise) so she is the precursor to the very special limited edition

Enk

Houndstooth and fuzzy felt

Pashenka

Prioska

for Natasha

Supersoft brown wool i am knitting into a neck warmer. It is very fine and i am using 3mm needles...so while it takes a bit longer to knit, the end product looks better and is denser and warmer. The buttons are clear with orange/red rose inserts.

Lieblinge

These are three of my favourite possessions that take residence in my room a the farm.

1. Glazed Owl Vessel
My friend Kate Archdeacon made this for me. I love the size and weight, the etched detail of the owl and i especially like the glaze!

2.Unfinished painting
Margot Kroyer Pedersen, part of a calendar that never went ahead. I love the wrens, that it still has pencil ruled lines for layout plans and my nanna mounted it.---excuse the flash...ahhh---

3. Scarf
Another item made by Kate Archdeacon. Fantastically warm and soft, love the soft grey check on one side and the solid grey with hand embroidered ducks on the reverse.

Orvokki

Hand sewn deer in vinyl and vintage houndstooth with a sttely glimpse of ribs.



** Flash looks awful on vinyl!!

Ludmilla

Hand sewn woodland chum in striking cream linen and grey with vivid stomach flap.

kidneys

Present for a friends Birthday (very very belated now, oops)

Transfer print onto calico, stuffed with suri fleece.

The left kidney is edged with black beading, black thread and is stuffed with Ferdie's fleece.
The Right Kidney uses cream thread and faux pearl beading and is filled with Grace Jones's fleece.


They can be kept as a pair and worn together or singular....or keep one and give the other to your sweetheart, friend or family member.

The Bad Seed

I wanted to thank my friend for writing an article about my stuff, so i made her 'The Bad Seed' a felt version of Nick Cave's moustache.
The stache is made from hand made felt (Alpaca of course) sewn over a card substrate. Nick was a quick sketch in illustrator.
Me wearing the moustache

new catalogue

This still needs work, but i like it better than the old one. The stitching is a mess!
I'm in love with the cover and have been using the deer sketch for heaps of other things.